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Wednesday, September 5, 2007

lj-music: Manu Chao - Welcome to Tijuana

You are all ravening beasts. A more desperate gang of abandoned ruffians I have never seen. You are all perfidious villains. Invective aside, I will now inform you that although I promised to post pictures with this entry, I can't figure out how to do it. So you ain't gwine get NONE. I have, however, been assembling a collection of short pieces that I feel truly sum up my experiences in Vietnam thus far. And since you are so pressing, I will condescend to irradiate you with the following:

HAIKU:

Beautiful Mongrel
Peacefully Regurgitates
Noodles at my feet.

FREE FORM POEM:
ANCIENT AND BEAUTIFUL

Bridging the gulf
of my linguistic isolation
your trembling hands
quiver dangerously close to my knees
the gristly meat skinned claws
of your fingers
seamed with abuse
and festooned with filth
belie all my desperate attempts
to just enjoy my damn coffee
in the glare of the setting sun
glancing painfully
off the glistening patina
of your tubercular sputum.

A LIST:
SOME THINGS I LEARNED IN VIETNAM:
1)Looking back will get you killed.
2)"One Way" is merely a timid suggestion, proffered cringingly and with trepidation.
3)Driving on the right hand side of the road is also more of a hopeful advancement than a law, demonstrating the traditional Vietnamese method of discipline: More optimism than efficacy.
4) Let's ALL go look.
5)It is possible to do anything in traffic as long as you don't think about it first.
6) If you have to panic, that's ok, because you won't have time.
7) Please do not walk on the sidewalk. Some people are trying to park.

This is all I have time for, as I must now plan a lesson for some rabid Koreans who insist on calling me "Teacher Emmi." Our next installment will cover our COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS road trip to the beach, and all attendant disasters.